A/N: Whoa, this chapter came out so... Detailed... Yeah. XD

-Misty

Song of the day: Dracula (Probably listed this one already, but oh well. XD)

By: F(x)

Vamp. Modern AU:
Here he was, Eren Jaeger, a nineteen year old college student who worked at a store selling everyday things, had just found a boy who couldn't be any less than fifteen and was a vampire, and by the looks of it, he didn't seem all too happy to be one.

Rated M for sexual content, adult language, violence and gore, mentions of rape
Couple: Eremin (Eren and Armin)
Anime: Shingeki No Kyojin (Attack On Titan)

Dead of Night

Chapter Ten: Blood Spill

The ride to the Arlert residence could have been worse. It could have been better, but it definitely could have been worse. As far as he saw it, or as far as any of them saw it, it was somewhere in the middle.

Levi drove his car, an expensive, black, and sleek car that looked like something out of a movie, to the home. Eren and Mikasa sat in the back, buckled up tight with the windows down for air. Armin was forced to sit in the front like the other teens had been forced to sit in the back. His seatbelt was tight around his chest and waist, his window was rolled up, and he kept his head low, but that was of his own will. He was forced by Levi to do the other things; however, there was no way in hell he was going to argue with the man.

His life (if it still even existed) was quite literally hanging in the balance of this man's decision. He wasn't sure yet if Levi had totally given up on the idea of killing him. Well, that was a stupid hope. Of course Levi hadn't given up yet. One false move and Armin was dead... Or deader.

So he wouldn't argue. He kept quiet, kept his head low, his eyes down on his hands in his lap, and didn't say a word. He barely wanted to look up when he felt the car finally pull to a stop. Were they at a red light again, or was Levi stopping for gas? His questions were soon answered when Levi unbuckled his seatbelt and whacked at the side of Armin's forearm.

"Brat, is this your place?" He asked curtly. Armin had the presence of mind not to jolt his head upright fast, fearing the loss of it if he did. His blue eyes looked up, widening momentarily at the sight in front of him.

"Yes sir..." He responded quietly. "... This is my house..."

The place didn't look like it once had. Two or so weeks ago, it was full of life. The plants were alive, his dog was in the yard running around and barking up a storm, and the clouds hung far away, pined to the sky in different places, but never over his own home.

This was not his home.

The flowers were dead, all vegetation lifeless and the garden practically barren and rotting. There was no dog, not even the sounds of his barking could be heard from a distance, and Armin would be able to hear it. The clouds were bolted in place in the sky, making a Tuesday afternoon dark like evening.

There was caution tape lining the fence and gates, and on that tape in big bold letters, the writing wrote, "Keep out." The sight looked like something from a horror movie. It looked like something one would read about in a book and then imagine up, and yet this was his home. Armin had spent the better part of nine years in this house with his parents and grandfather, and now...

Now this was a ghost house.

"Alright then. Let's get in there and see what we can find." Levi commanded as he got out of the car.

"What are we looking for, Levi?" Eren asked as he stepped out of the car too. Mikasa instinctually followed, but Armin lingered, eyes staring down the place he once called home with a forlorn expression.

"Whatever can get you three out of trouble. You guys have caused a shit-ton of problems, and I'm just looking for a fucking miracle."

Armin could hear their voices from the open windows, but the words were unclear to him. He heard them, but they didn't really connect to him. He understood the meaning behind them, but they didn't add up correctly in his mind.

"Armin...?" There was a knock on his window, and only then did he snap out of his comatose state. Armin looked through the clear glass of his window, finding Eren standing outside and waiting for him. Armin unbuckled himself from the car seat and got out, his eyes on the ground. He couldn't lift them, whether it was to look at Eren, Mikasa or Levi. His house was still there, and he wasn't sure if he had the courage to go in there anymore.

What would it look like? Had it been cleaned since he ran away? He had been in such a panic when he left the first time that he didn't bother trying to observe his surroundings, so how would it look now?

"Armin..." Eren said softly and touched his hand. Armin's eyes lifted just a little, looking up at Eren's collar bone. As soon as his house came into view, however, he looked back to the ground. "Armin, are you okay?"

"I..." Armin began, but he found himself utterly lacking in words. "I just... Haven't been here since I..." The words were caught in his throat.

"Since you died." Levi finished for him.

"Levi," Mikasa said in a quiet hiss, trying to reprimand him for his choice of words.

"The kid is dead, and nothing can change that. The sooner we get in there and find evidence, the sooner he can start living a better life." Levi pointed out brashly, but he had a point. Armin lifted his head, barely meeting Levi's eyes as he continued to speak. "If you all want to live, and I'm guessing Eren wants to continue that with Armin now, we need to get in there. Whatever we're about to see can't be unseen, but we don't have a choice. We can't hesitate."

Levi was right, as usual. Armin was hesitating, because what if he was about to see something he could never forget? What if the Military Police hadn't taken care of his parents or grandfathers bodies? What if they were still in there, rotting away like yesterday's food thrown away? He couldn't bear it if he saw that.

Just the idea of seeing a mutilated body made Armin's stomach turn, and for a moment longer, he had to collect himself. He was afraid of being yelled at by their guardian, but Levi seemed to understand.

"If you're going to vomit, do it in the bushes. I don't want to see your gross bile on the ground." He remarked with a terrible frown.

"Maybe you should sit down for a moment." Eren suggested while wrapping an arm around the new bloods shoulder.

"No," Armin said and shook his head. "No, I'm okay. I just need to breathe through this..." He lifted his head, rebelliously fighting his sickening urges to vomit in means of getting this over with. Levi was right, and he had to follow this man and his advice.

"So are we wasting time or what?" Levi asked with arms crossed firmly over his chest. Armin nodded his head, a new sense of fight or flight filling his body.

He could do this. He could- No. He had to do this. It wasn't about him. It was about Mikasa and Eren, and how it was his fault that they were in trouble. He wouldn't put them at risk anymore.

"Let's go," Armin asserted and led the way. He ripped the caution tape from his front gates and opened them, the loud squeak from the lack of use the only loud thing around them for a good mile. Armin distantly thought that the gate never sounded like that, but he remembered that he had an objective to focus on. He ignored the dead flowers, the dead garden his mother spent her free time tending to, and the pile of newspapers that accumulated on his front steps. The door was unlocked, and Armin opened them as a similar squeak of the hinges sounded.

All of that sense of pride disappeared.

There were no bodies, and Armin thanked whatever God there was for it. However, the amount of blood stained into the floors was another story entirely. The wooden floors of his living room were forever stained a dark red, dried from the time spent laying uncleaned and untreated. There were splatters of blood on the walls, moving from the front door where they stood to the alcove of the kitchen where the blood pooled on the floor, some of it still damp. The counters were soaked, the cupboards were drenched, and the white counters were forever destroyed by chips of broken marble.

This was too much. So much blood didn't come from one person, and with sickening realization, Armin realized that it wasn't just from one person. It was from three, and by the looks of the horrifying sight left behind, it was not a quiet and peaceful death as Armin had hoped.

"Holy shit..." Somehow it was surprising that even someone as stoic as Levi was deterred by the horrendous sight in front of them.

Armin's eyes, which long ago became red, shifted to the imprints left behind from bodies. One imprint was draped against his once green sofa in a place his grandfather usually took up to read the newspaper on. The other was by the bookshelf where his father would nitpick at books, and the last place was in the kitchen where his mother was often found cooking.

Memories from that night seemed to flood his mind. He had been half asleep when he heard the screams from his father and mother, but he took it up as a bad dream. If only he could turn back time and change that. If only he could have woken up, then maybe he would have been able to call for help before he himself was attacked.

And then his eyes widened.

Attention averted away from the massacre of blood, Armin bolted to the hallway and disappeared behind the closest door. Eren followed, calling after the new blood in hopes of catching his attention. When that didn't seem to work, he simply followed, being lead into a room that Eren quickly assumed was Armin. Or it once was Armin's.

His room was in no better condition. While most of the left side of the room was clean, the right side where his bed sat was destroyed. His bed was soaked in blood, most of it dried by now. His sheets were torn and fluff and feathers from his blankets and pillows dusted the floor and walls where blood made the adhesion possible. Most of it was stuck against the wall where bullets of blood had splattered and stained the light blue walls, and the mental images of what could have happened to the new blood filled his mind.

The images of him being held down. The images of him being torn apart, ravaged by some animal and eaten alive. The images of his struggles as he fought for his life while he screamed for help, only for no one to help him.

Eren's fists clutched in anger.

Why, why, why...? Why did things like this exist? Sure, Armin was one now, but by force, and he was good. He would never intentionally hurt someone, so why would he be murdered? Why couldn't those damn pure bloods hold back?

"Armin..." Eren began, ready to try and help his friend. He was quickly shot down though when Armin pushed his way past the brunette and ran down the hallway. "A-Armin!" The blond left the house through a back door, and Eren spared one last glance at the crime scene of his room before chasing after him.

The door led him to a backyard, where more flowers were dead and one young tree stood without attention. Armin was by this tree, hunched over on the ground and losing his lunch by the bark. Eren quietly and carefully walked over to him and placed a hand on his shoulder, not in a threatening way, but just for comfort.

"Armin..." He whispered softly. Armin's only possible response was to grab at Eren's hand and hold onto it for dear life as he heaved in deep gasps for air. After the last amount of bile could leave him, Armin was left with a few dry upheaves that left him in pain and feeling like his ribs were about to crack. His grip around Eren intensified significantly, but Eren didn't say anything against it. Poor Armin needed the support, and Eren was there to give it to him. "Shh..."

"E-Eren..." Armin gasped out.

"It's okay, it's okay. Just take slow, deep breaths and focus on-"

"I can't cry!" Armin cried over him. Eren's words were left dangling as the blond in front of him tried collecting himself, but to no prevail. "I-I know that I have to cry, but nothing is coming out! I feel ready for it, but it's just not coming..." Armin was hit with another wave of nausea, but he was happy that he didn't puke this time around. Eren's hand continued to hold his, but his free hand moved to remove the backpack hanging from his shoulders.

He pulled at the zipper to open it and pulled out a water bottle, new and uncapped. Eren held out the water bottle for his friend, motioning with it so he knew that Armin saw it. When he did, he hesitated to take it.

"It's just water. Drink it."

"I don't want any." Armin replied stubbornly.

"Trust me..." Eren said in a low voice. Aim glanced up at him skeptically before taking the water and drinking it like he said. There was a moment of relief; he hadn't had any water in days, and his throat was parched and dry from it, but then he found something odd to be happening.

With a few more overenthusiastic gulps of water, the tears he had been trying to release just moments before finally sprang free from his eyes. Armin stopped drinking to touch at his cheeks, feeling the cold water running down his pale skin and through his fingers. He looked up at Eren, his eyes widened and Eren patted his head.

Eren had known, hadn't he? And that was why he had Armin drink the water, or rather; he wouldn't let him go until he had some water in his system. The only benefit Armin could see coming from this was the tears he could now produce, even if they weren't his own. However, if this was all he had to do to feel the least bit more human, he wouldn't argue.

"Better...?" Eren asked with one of those sincere smiles he had for him. Armin managed a small laugh and wiped away the tears, nodding his head in response.

"Yeah... I guess there's a lot more I still need to learn, right?" Armin openly joked.

"It's not like you would hate it. You love learning new things." The brunette pointed out. Armin laughed again, capping the water bottle and handing it back to Eren. He looked Eren's way once more, finding Eren's eyes directly on his in a way that he felt embarrassing. He tried looking away, but Eren's hand caught his chin and tilted it back with a firm grip, but my so firm that it would hurt. "Your eyes are red," He quietly stated.

"Yeah, I know..." Armin mumbled. "It's disgusting... To think I got hungry by the sight of my own families blood."

"Don't do that, Armin. It wasn't just that. You haven't had much to eat since you turned, so anything is going to get you hungry. Overtime you'll resist it better." Eren explained as he released Armin's chin. Armin smiled.

Though slightly bitter, he was glad Eren was there. He wouldn't know what to do with himself if the teen wasn't. The only thing he could think of was seppuku, and he had long since made plans before Eren came and saved him.

"Eren..." Armin began, his eyes looking to Eren. He was ready thank him, to thank him for everything that Eren had ever done for him up to this point, and for whatever would happen later on, but he was stopped by the sight of Eren holding his hand out to him. At first it confused Armin; however, it didn't take long to understand what the teen was implying. "Eren, no." He said and backed up.

"It's just a finger prick, and I'll take care of it this time." Eren retorted with a smug smirk. Armin whined in his throat, the temptation highly persuading.

"Eren-"

"You don't want Levi seeing you like this, right?" Eren asked. "Hurry up before he gets out here and beats us both up." To make his point, Eren poked at one of Armin's cheeks, just egging the new blood on. Another whine left him before he took up Eren's hand within his own and looked at it.

"You better clean it this time." He warned, and before he gave Eren the chance to respond, he lightly bit into his finger. Eren hissed lightly at the pain, but he was glad when Armin had the presence of mind to pull his teeth back out after the initial bite. A small flow of blood fell from the pad of Eren's finger, and Armin lapped at it quietly before letting his lips settle around the bite so none of the blood would fall. Eren swallowed a thick lump forming in his throat, his eyes trapped in a gaze at the sight of Armin sucking on his finger.

"Ah..." Eren sounded out softly. Armin looked up at him, his lips lingering on his injury a moment longer before they slipped away. The sight in front of him should not have been as arousing as it was to him.

"What's wrong?" Armin asked with a small lick to his bottom lip. Eren shivered, his cheeks flushing a darker color as he tried to up the words together in his head.

"... I-I probably should have chosen a different place for you to bite."

Nope, definitely not the right choice words.

"Pervert," Armin joked and shoved at Eren's shoulder. Eren tried laughing away his embarrassment, but it was no use. His cheeks were stained red, and it just wouldn't go away.

"I can't help myself when it's you." Eren tried to recover, but it didn't help much. "I just... Uhm..."

"I think I get it." Armin interrupted. Eren couldn't have been happier to have to end the conversation. With this break Armin had given him, it was the perfect opportunity to get out.

"So... Let's go back inside and get you some clothes." Eren suggested as he stood up on his legs. He was surprised to find himself slightly off balance; he didn't think Armin had gotten that much from him.

"Why...?" Armin asked as Eren helped him up.

"I thought you wouldn't want to wear my clothes forever." Eren said while motioning to the baggy clothes Armin had been wearing. "And let's be honest, Levi's clothes will be too small for you." He added with a laugh.

"I guess you're right." Armin mumbled with a small smile. Eren took up his hand and held it firmly in his grasp as he lead the smaller teen back to the house. Armin faltered when they reached the back door, but Eren have him an assuring smile with a comforting squeeze of his hand. With that, he was able to get back into the house. Eren offered to go into his room and retrieve his clothes for him, and Armin agreed to wait. He leaned against the wall as Eren got his clothes for him.

When Eren came back out, he already had a few shirts and pants ready for him.

"If you want, you can change into these now. I thought you'd probably be more comfortable that way anyway."

"Yeah..." Armin took his clothes from him and headed to another room, what Eren assumed was the bathroom. He glanced back into the room, eyeing the mess with a burning anger still present in his chest.

Why?

There were no answers to his questions. New bloods made sense, because they couldn't control themselves at the beginning of their new life. Pure bloods, however, knew better. They knew how to control themselves, so why? Had a pure blood just lost it and went after them?

And why them?

What had Armin and his family done to deserve such a terrible death?

Why was Armin the only one to turn? Had his family been too mangled to come back from the dead? Or had the vampire had his fair share of blood by the time he had gotten to Armin?

It didn't make sense. It just didn't make sense.

"Eren...?" Eren jumped in place, his trance on the mess in the room breaking in favor of finding Armin leaving the bathroom. He was fully dressed in his own clothes now, the others and Eren's own tucked away under his arm. "Are you okay?" Armin asked, his now blue eyes worried as he stared at the older teen.

Eren smiled and nodded his head as Armin stepped closer to him, but he didn't want to run the risk of looking inside.

"Yeah, I'm okay. You know how I get." Eren retorted with a grin, making Armin smile lightly.

"You think too much." Armin said. Eren nodded his head before brushing the new bloods blond bangs from his face. If he had any left, Armin would have blushed, but there wasn't much left he could use to accomplish that. He settled for looking down at his feet, his smile widening to almost as big as Eren's. He giggled, his hands clutching at the fabrics between his fingers tighter.

Such a cute display had Eren leaning forward, pushing his bangs away enough to press a kiss to his forehead. He felt the startled gasp against his neck as Armin shifted away. Even with his lack of blood, there was no way he could hide the blush on his cheeks and spreading to his ears.

"What's wrong?" Eren asked.

"I don't want Levi seeing." Armin muttered with a small pout, which did well to make Eren laugh.

"I'll take that answer instead of never touching you again." Eren wrapped his arm around Armin's waist and lead him back to the back door again. He didn't want to upset the new blood by going through the living room again.

"I'm not too keen on dying today." Armin retorted and willingly followed, his head falling to rest on Eren's shoulder as the two of them made their way around the house.

It was Eren who saw it first. Armin had been so enraptured in the comforting atmosphere of them that it took Eren stopping and pushing him back to realize that something was wrong. He looked past Eren's shoulder, fighting to be back by his side before the sight before him stopped him as well.

Levi and Mikasa stood at the gate of the Arlert residence, but that wasn't what caught his attention first. It was the dozens of men and women standing in front of them, guns drawn and blades as long as his legs shining in the dim light of evening. These men and women had all weapons pointed to the two, but their threats didn't seem to faze them at all.

It was then that Armin's eyes traveled to the emblems on their jackets, the emblems with steeds in the colors of green and grey.

The Military Police.